The Assembly Agriculture Committee, chaired by DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley, yesterday heard of an industry struggling to survive on an annual income of £80 million, with debts of about £1 billion.
The committee called on representatives from the four major banks operating in Northern Ireland to help the North's 80,000 farmers.
DUP and Sinn Fein Assembly members attended the committee's first meeting at Stormont, along with MLAs from the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and Alliance.
Despite the DUP's pledge not to co-operate with Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland Assembly, a full day of hearings proceeded without rancour.
With Dr Paisley in the chair, members from each party made points and raised questions with representatives from the agriculture sector.
The story told by representatives from the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) and the Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers' Association (NIAPA) was one of gloom.
The committee was told that nearly all sectors - beef, sheep, pigs, poultry and potato - were in trouble.
Deputy president of the UFU Mr Douglas Rowe said farmers owed banks £520 million while annual incomes were around £80 million.
Moreover, according to the UFU, farmers were in debt to an additional £300 million to hire purchase companies, credit unions, and machinery and other suppliers.
Others were liquidating pensions and insurance schemes to survive.
Mr Sean Clarke, vice-president of NIAPA, said the true debt figure could be more than £1 billion.
The director general of the UFU, Mr Alistair MacLaughlin, said young people had lost confidence in farming.
Some were maintaining livelihoods by part-time work but future generations might not be prepared to go into the industry.
"Our young people will not want to stay," he warned.
Mr Nigel McLaughlin of NIAPA said in the early 1990s some young people returned to farming but were now thinking of leaving again.
"That is a major worry for the future," he added.
The farmers' representatives urged the committee to use its influence to persuade the banks to reduce interest rates and other charges and, where possible, to provide moratoriums on loans.
Dr Paisley said it was imperative that farmers get a "cash injection".
He complained of inadequate cash supports and of bureaucratic systems at Westminster and Brussels that were hindering the export of Northern Ireland beef.
The committee met the Northern Ireland Bankers' Association in private yesterday. According to committee sources, the association - with representatives from the Ulster Bank, First Trust, Bank of Ireland and the Northern Bank - was urged to take action to ease the financial plight of Northern farmers.
